EGGS ENCORE

   

In the first essay for May you read that eggs are back in favor, how easy they are on your budget, and the basic ways to cook and enjoy them. Now we’re on an egg-stended journey to see how eggs figure into our lives in other than culinary ways.

Never mind which came first, the chicken or the egg, the egg was around long before man even thought of that question.  The recurring egg-chicken-egg cycle was and still is fascinating. From ancient times the egg was revered in most cultures as a symbol of rebirth. The egg has inspired everything from the original L’eggs package, to jelly beans, to those fabulous Fabergé eggs.             

Birds eggs come in all sizes, from the huge ostrich egg, equal to 18 to 24 chicken eggs, down to the minute bee-hummingbird’s egg, no bigger than a pea.  Colors: Easter eggs aside, eggs come in a variety of colors from the most common white to black, with a rainbow of colors in between. Some are spotted or mottled, some are plain.  All are beautiful.  All are edible. Most eggs are egg-shaped, but the eggs of guillemots and some other marine birds are pear shaped and pointed so that they will roll in a circle, but won’t roll off the cliff ledge where they are laid.

One of the earth’s perfectly packaged foods, enjoyed by most omnivores, eggs are nutritious and delicious. They are useful in cooking and the manufacturing of products such as cake mixes, salad dressings, noodles, and cosmetics and medicines.  They have antimicrobial properties and antioxidant properties. The whole egg is useful, from the whites and yolks on out to the shells which can be ground for fertilizer and animal feed.
 

Here are some egg-cellent Questions and Answers about eggs:

What connection does Michelangelo’s Last supper have with eggs?  The mural was painted in egg tempera – a mixture of pigments, oil, vinegar, and egg yolk.

What connection do eggs have with your T-bone steak?  They aid in the preservation of bull semen for artificial insemination.

What connection do eggs have with your flu shot? Fertile eggs are used in the manufacture of vaccines.  Eggs are also used in testing to feed laboratory animals and as a growth base for micro-organisms.

What do eggs have to do with your glass of wine?  The enzyme lysozyme from the egg white is being used in place of sulfites to inhibit lactic acid bacteria in wine, and to enhance its taste and color.  It is also used in the ripening of some cheeses.

What do eggs have to do with your daily beauty routine? Aside from the egg facial mask you might use, egg membranes are used in testing cosmetics for possible irritating properties.

What will eggs have to do with your dishwasher? Proteins from egg whites are being studied in the preparation of biological polymer films for use in water-soluble packaging like those for dishwasher and laundry packs.

What connection do clowns have with eggs?  A new member of Clowns International registers the design of his makeup on an egg.  A display of hundreds of them can be seen at the Clowns Museum in Somerset, England.

Why do chickens lay eggs?  If they drop them they’ll break.